One of the most special times for me at Christmas, is the decorating of the tree.

As a child – I really used to love the magic of it all – it meant if we are putting the tree up, the big day must be nearly here! Untangling the lights, looking over each bauble, the handmade decorations made and collected over the years, placing each one carefully on the branches! Mum and dad always kept everything as well – even now, I am sure they have some pinecones wrapped up in some red wool that I made as a toddler at nursery…clearly very crafty from a young age!

I love putting the tree up – but NEVER the taking down. Poor Mum used to always get that job, and Dad to put everything back into the loft.

For the last few years, we actually have had a potted tree – and yes, the same one! – we bought it one early December from the side of the road for only £15 (I haggled the seller down from £25!)… We took it home, prettied it up, and then come the New Year – we just put it in the garden to see what would happen. At some point later in the summer, I noticed – it was GROWING – new sprouts had appeared, so we thought let’s see if it will make it til Winter… Sure enough, it did – and as a special treat for us not having to buy a new one – we even bought it a new lovely ceramic pot! Now part of the family of course – it even had a name…Ned! We didn’t think it would surely get to the following Christmas but sure enough – it did – and it survived for 4 years!

However, last year – either it decided to be naughty, or we were very unloving parents and didn’t look after it well enough, but… well, it had 1000’s of bugs growing on it, that we didn’t know about until they were all over the floor in our house. I tried to remain calm, but they were EVERYWHERE – and that was it – poor Ned – banished to the garden on Christmas Eve! Naughty Ned.
Having held a few lovely craft workshops at Claydon Christmas Tree Farm this year, I was determined to get a nice shiny and new, and certainly real one… there were so many to choose from! Part of me wanted to get a HUGE tree (for our not so huge house, so that wouldn’t have really worked) but another part of me wanted to get a potted one and try and keep this one again for a few years. As much as I wanted loads and loads of lovely huge branches to decorate, we went with a lovely small potted one. And yes, this one also has a name – Buddy!

Every year, I try and keep a ‘theme’ to the decorating – and I always think I will try something new – but invariably, I always end up with ‘Skandi’ type Christmas with reds, whites and a few golds, just continually adding to the collection every year. However, this year – I have finally done something different – new year, new start – and gone with some lovely naturals – greys, whites, and some beautiful gold birdies and large gold stars. When I went to put the tree up this week – I realised we didn’t have our normal lights – they also went into the great Christmas tree sky with Ned as they were COVERED in sap, and bugs (eww, gross!) so although I could have waited, gone out and bought some more – I didn’t of course, it had to be decorated straight away! – and so I managed to dig out some actually ‘Moroccan’ themed ones from a few parties back…which actually kind of work – so, there aren’t as many lights as normal, but Buddy looks beautiful (even if I do say so myself!). I keep referring to ‘I’ and ‘Me’ in all of this – it is of course mine, AND ‘The Husband’s – and although he doesn’t like Christmas perhaps as much as me – he is just happy that I am happy, and having a potted tree in our living room does seem to make me happy!

On that note – when you actually stop to think about it…why do we bring in a living tree into our front rooms, shove it in a corner and adorn it with lights and baubles?! There is some great history on it it all – here at www.history.comand also, all the different traditions of it all – all around the world.

This isn’t my last blog post before the year is it out, I am sure – but wherever you are, and whether your tree is real, or fake, and whether you like neutrals or reds, or crazy multicoloured, or anything and everything in between – I hope you have a magical and crafty Christmas and a creative New Year!